Much Interest Shown in Discoverin$ Oldest California Wooden Shingle

The hunt for the "oldest wooden shingle" has been going on merrily for the past two weeks, and scores of lumber dealers in all parts of California have been offering cash prizes to the residents of the city, seeking to find the oldest shingle, and at the sa.nre time to create more of an interest in shingles.

Nlany of the lumber dealers, and quite a number of newspapers, have been very ingenious in the construction of their advertisements seeking the oldest shingle. The famous Byron Times stuck a big red capital letter here and there in the news all over its front page, one issue, the total of wh'ich red letters were a splendid advertisemeni for the contest.

Gus Russell, of The Santa Fe Lumber Company, San Francisco, author of the Oldest Shingle Contest, expresses himself as we go to press with this issue, as very much pleased indeed, with the increased interest in the contest.

Remember-all entries in the contest must come from a California Lumber Dealer.

They rnust be addressed to E. D. Tennant, Chairman of the Judges Contmittee, 355 Pacific Electric Building, Los Angeles, and the name of the sender shown plainly on the package. Be prepared to authenticate the facts that you give the judges with regard to your entries. Accompany your entry with a terse statement conc€rning the shingle or shingles, giving location, description, and ownership of the building from which the shingle was taken, together with authentic 'information to prove the actual years of service of the shingle on that roof.

The prizes will be awarded on the basis of the length of service and state of preservation of each shingle.

llave your entries in the hands of the Chairman of the Judges Committee not later than June lst. The award will be anuounced in the succeecling issue of THE CALIFORNIA LUMBER MERCHANT.

-fhe newspapers of California got hold of the Oldest Shingle Contest as a news item just a week ago, and found it interesting, the result being that prominent news articles appeared in hundreds of California papers at that time, tell'ing all about the contest.

Naturally this aroused much interest not previously known.

Probably the most interesting o{ these stories appeared on "The Clubman's Page," of the Oakland Post-Enquirer, on Saturday, May 5th, and was so good'that we take the liberty of reprinting it:

WANTED. A SHINGLE

Gus Russell of the Santa Fe Lumber Company of San

Francisco wants a shingle. Not a lawyer's shingle, not one of those distressing shingles that the learned med'icos call "herpes zoster," and not any old shingle. He wants the oldest sawn shingle in California. When he gets it, he will place it in General de Young's Park Museum.

With the assistance of Frank L. \'Iulgrew, Peter B. Kyne .and others, Gus saved the shingle at the last election when the State Housing Act which would h.ave made the shingle an outlaw, was chopped into kindling wood by the intelligent voters. So Gus proposes to honor the shingle'

The shingle, says Gus, stands for something significant in California. The first roofs built by the Argonauts were of shakes, thin split boards made by driving a wedge through a log. Many examples of shake roofs may still be found in the mountains of California. rShakes were always made on the premises. Sawn shingles did not appear until a more permanent civ'ilization came, so sawn shingles mark the beginning of community life in California. Sawn shingles were tangible evidence that the rough, shifting social bases of pioneer times had become stabilized. Hence Gus Russell's interest in the oldest shingle to be found in California.

Here is a clue. '-fhe latest volume issued by the California Historical society contains "The Chronicles of George C. Yount." Yount was a pioneer of 1826. Under date of 1833-mind you, we are speaking of California-I find this entry :

"From Benicia Yount proceeded to Petaluma, and the X''Iissions of San Rafael and Sonoma. The padre of the two missions, recognizing his all-around, frontier ingenuity hired him to make some needed repairs on the building. Mrs. Watson says that Yount was the first person to make shingles in Alta, California."

And we are referred to a manuscript in the Bancroft library which contains the following:

"I made arrangements with Geo. Yount to manufacture shingles to shingle Vallejo's house in Sonoma.

"The shingles had to be made in the'most primitive mauner as we had no machinery. The tree was felled, barked, cross cut ofi in blocks of 18 inches long, then split and shaved. With all those difficulties Yount and myself used to make about 1000 shingles a day each, and I have seen men make as rnany as 1500. Those shingles we mdde were ' the first that had been seen in the country."

Gus Russell is offering w prize for the oldest shingle. Somebody in or about Sonoma ought to make an effort to win it.